5 ms·

I find play to be the most effective way of learning. When I was learning, for example, the backpropagation algorithm, no amount of lectures could've helped me

by JamilD 10y ago

I find play to be the most effective way of learning. When I was learning, for example, the backpropagation algorithm, no amount of lectures could've helped me understand better than just drawing a network, thinking "what happens when I change the weights here?", and toying with the equations. It gives you an intimate familiarity and understanding that you can't get anywhere else.

agumonkey 10y ago
Play disengage a very bad emotional state often found in classes. You don't fear ridicule much, you're eager to try, lots of iterations in a small time; often instant results.
- Declanomous 10y ago
  This is what I like about common core. I think a lot of hate for it comes from the fear of being wrong in school that a lot of people have growing up. The common core homework people post online with captions like "how is my child supposed to know the answer to this?" The point is they aren't, they are supposed to come up with a guess and explain their reasoning.
  - l3m0ndr0p 10y ago
    Common core is a blight on children and needs to be eradicated for the USA schools. This systems has destroyed my child's self esteem and ability to grasp simple/moderate math problems. The schools were blaming my child, yet they didn't even consider that methods of teaching are wrong and should be modified to suit an individual. The one-size fits all doesn't work & never will. Fuck common core and the people who are making money off of it.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 10y ago
    Yes, but they're being graded, at which point it isn't really play.
    - Pulcinella 10y ago
      That really depends on the school and grade level. The homework I assign is usually graded for completion, not accuracy. You still have to do it, but there is less pressure on getting the right answer instead of learning.
  - 0xdeadbeefbabe 10y ago
    Some of the hate for it comes from it being a mandate for everyone. I don't believe you can force people to be playful about their homework in the right way. Some child is probably reasoning: "I answered this question this way because I want to be done with my stupid homework."
    - Pulcinella 10y ago
      "...I want to be done with my stupid homework." In a way, this is a huge difficulty with learning in general. Practice can feel repetitive and boring, especially if you don't care for the skill you are practicing. As a teacher I'm not sure what to do about this. I teach science and the "fun" parts are frequently tied to things students don't like (e.g. Algebraic calculations needed for simple data analysis like calculating averages or rearranging a formula to solve for momentum). The students are curious about science, but hate the math parts because they struggle with the algebra. Doing algebra isn't the point, it's just a tool you need to do the science. The goal is to be good enough at the algebra that it doesn't require any real brain power so that the students can focus on the science, what their resaults really mean, understanding the system, etc. If you have a poor grasp of algebra then you are going to have a bad time. I'm not sure what to do for these students except have them practice and I'm not sure how to always make practice enjoyable. I'm not talking about homework here, necessarily, and I don't think homework is appropriate for all grade levels in all situations.
      - Declanomous 10y ago
        I think a large part of the issue is that education is not holistic. I mean that in the sense that we teach every subject like it exists in a vacuum. I don't have a solution, but I think a Montessori education is closer to the ideal method of education than what we have no. For example, I know a lot of children complain about how they will never have to use they math they are learning when they grow up. I think it's a really valid complaint, and I know teachers recognize that issue as well because the write problems that deal with real-world situations. The things is that a lot of the real-world situations that end up being used in questions are still pretty abstract for a child. Like, money, building fences, finding the area of yards, etc. A lot of these problems could be translated to actual physical projects. For instance, put everyone in groups of four, and say "here is a little yard with toy animals in it, figure out how much string you need to go around the posts, then come up and cut off a single piece of string. The group that gets the closest wins." That being said, I think that's kind of a Montessori solution, since you'd probably want kids to choose the activity that interests them the most. It's definitely too much to ask one teacher to lesson plan 3 or 4 little activities for each thing a given group of children need to learn every day, and then monitor those activities as they are happening. Honestly, I think the majority of the education I've retained from my childhood is from things like Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and other extracurricular activities like OM/DI.
  - btilly 10y ago
    What I don't like about common core is that it is leaving my son and his classmates hopelessly confused and without basic calculation skills. If we want to actually fix elementary math education, that would be simple. Singapore has developed a math curriculum that puts them top in the world in testing. Every research study that has used their system has found that it works far better than we do. But we have an entire educational establishment whose profits depend on our having periodic crises that let them rewrite all of the textbooks and charge top dollar retraining all of our teachers. Switching to something that works wouldn't make them money, so they will undermine the political process to guarantee that it doesn't happen. As for homework, that's a giant can of worms. There is plenty of research on homework. It shows that homework is net neutral on actual learning, but a strong negative on creating stress. Digging in, it turns out that it can help or hurt, but whether it helps or hurts depends on whether there is someone at home who makes sure that the child does correct practice rather than incorrect practice. Therefore assigning homework's main impact (after home stress) is to widen the educational gap between children of different socioeconomic statuses. The problem with common core homework is that the children don't know how to do it, the parents can't figure out what the teacher wants, and the end result is utter confusion. I've seen this first hand. I have a masters in math, but I'd look at my son's 4th grade homework and say, "I can think of several things that the teacher might want, but I have no idea which one she does." The end result was utter confusion in my son. Confusion that resulted in his lacking basic skills until we hired a tutor to fix that. Anyways Common Core is a complete and utter disaster. We aren't too far from parents' resentment rising up and causing a new reform movement that will predictably get hijacked by the same interests who guaranteed that Common Core would fail. Which is nothing new. It has happened every 5-10 years for longer than I've been alive...
    - Declanomous 10y ago
      I agree with most of your points, but I don't think common core is a disaster. I couldn't agree with you more on the homework front. However I don't think homework is intrinsically the problem, I think the problem is the fact that our current educational system is based around pedagogy, of which doing homework is only a part. I personally think the fact that Common Core is designed to be more Socratic.

by JamilD 10y ago

agumonkey 10y ago

Play disengage a very bad emotional state often found in classes. You don't fear ridicule much, you're eager to try, lots of iterations in a small time; often instant results.

Declanomous 10y ago
This is what I like about common core. I think a lot of hate for it comes from the fear of being wrong in school that a lot of people have growing up. The common core homework people post online with captions like "how is my child supposed to know the answer to this?" The point is they aren't, they are supposed to come up with a guess and explain their reasoning.
- l3m0ndr0p 10y ago
  Common core is a blight on children and needs to be eradicated for the USA schools. This systems has destroyed my child's self esteem and ability to grasp simple/moderate math problems. The schools were blaming my child, yet they didn't even consider that methods of teaching are wrong and should be modified to suit an individual. The one-size fits all doesn't work & never will. Fuck common core and the people who are making money off of it.
- yjftsjthsd-h 10y ago
  Yes, but they're being graded, at which point it isn't really play.
  - Pulcinella 10y ago
    That really depends on the school and grade level. The homework I assign is usually graded for completion, not accuracy. You still have to do it, but there is less pressure on getting the right answer instead of learning.
- 0xdeadbeefbabe 10y ago
  Some of the hate for it comes from it being a mandate for everyone. I don't believe you can force people to be playful about their homework in the right way. Some child is probably reasoning: "I answered this question this way because I want to be done with my stupid homework."
  - Pulcinella 10y ago
    "...I want to be done with my stupid homework." In a way, this is a huge difficulty with learning in general. Practice can feel repetitive and boring, especially if you don't care for the skill you are practicing. As a teacher I'm not sure what to do about this. I teach science and the "fun" parts are frequently tied to things students don't like (e.g. Algebraic calculations needed for simple data analysis like calculating averages or rearranging a formula to solve for momentum). The students are curious about science, but hate the math parts because they struggle with the algebra. Doing algebra isn't the point, it's just a tool you need to do the science. The goal is to be good enough at the algebra that it doesn't require any real brain power so that the students can focus on the science, what their resaults really mean, understanding the system, etc. If you have a poor grasp of algebra then you are going to have a bad time. I'm not sure what to do for these students except have them practice and I'm not sure how to always make practice enjoyable. I'm not talking about homework here, necessarily, and I don't think homework is appropriate for all grade levels in all situations.
    - Declanomous 10y ago
      I think a large part of the issue is that education is not holistic. I mean that in the sense that we teach every subject like it exists in a vacuum. I don't have a solution, but I think a Montessori education is closer to the ideal method of education than what we have no. For example, I know a lot of children complain about how they will never have to use they math they are learning when they grow up. I think it's a really valid complaint, and I know teachers recognize that issue as well because the write problems that deal with real-world situations. The things is that a lot of the real-world situations that end up being used in questions are still pretty abstract for a child. Like, money, building fences, finding the area of yards, etc. A lot of these problems could be translated to actual physical projects. For instance, put everyone in groups of four, and say "here is a little yard with toy animals in it, figure out how much string you need to go around the posts, then come up and cut off a single piece of string. The group that gets the closest wins." That being said, I think that's kind of a Montessori solution, since you'd probably want kids to choose the activity that interests them the most. It's definitely too much to ask one teacher to lesson plan 3 or 4 little activities for each thing a given group of children need to learn every day, and then monitor those activities as they are happening. Honestly, I think the majority of the education I've retained from my childhood is from things like Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and other extracurricular activities like OM/DI.
- btilly 10y ago
  What I don't like about common core is that it is leaving my son and his classmates hopelessly confused and without basic calculation skills. If we want to actually fix elementary math education, that would be simple. Singapore has developed a math curriculum that puts them top in the world in testing. Every research study that has used their system has found that it works far better than we do. But we have an entire educational establishment whose profits depend on our having periodic crises that let them rewrite all of the textbooks and charge top dollar retraining all of our teachers. Switching to something that works wouldn't make them money, so they will undermine the political process to guarantee that it doesn't happen. As for homework, that's a giant can of worms. There is plenty of research on homework. It shows that homework is net neutral on actual learning, but a strong negative on creating stress. Digging in, it turns out that it can help or hurt, but whether it helps or hurts depends on whether there is someone at home who makes sure that the child does correct practice rather than incorrect practice. Therefore assigning homework's main impact (after home stress) is to widen the educational gap between children of different socioeconomic statuses. The problem with common core homework is that the children don't know how to do it, the parents can't figure out what the teacher wants, and the end result is utter confusion. I've seen this first hand. I have a masters in math, but I'd look at my son's 4th grade homework and say, "I can think of several things that the teacher might want, but I have no idea which one she does." The end result was utter confusion in my son. Confusion that resulted in his lacking basic skills until we hired a tutor to fix that. Anyways Common Core is a complete and utter disaster. We aren't too far from parents' resentment rising up and causing a new reform movement that will predictably get hijacked by the same interests who guaranteed that Common Core would fail. Which is nothing new. It has happened every 5-10 years for longer than I've been alive...
  - Declanomous 10y ago
    I agree with most of your points, but I don't think common core is a disaster. I couldn't agree with you more on the homework front. However I don't think homework is intrinsically the problem, I think the problem is the fact that our current educational system is based around pedagogy, of which doing homework is only a part. I personally think the fact that Common Core is designed to be more Socratic.